In THE UNKNOWN KNOWN, Academy Award-winning director Errol Morris (THE FOG OF WAR) offers a mesmerizing portrait of Donald Rumsfeld, one of the key architects of the Iraq War, and a larger-than-life character who provoked equal levels of fury and adulation from the American public. Rather than conducting a conventional interview, Morris has Rumsfeld perform and expound on his “snowflakes,” tens of thousands of memos (many never previously published) he composed as a congressman and as an advisor to four different presidents, twice as Secretary of Defense. These memos provide a window onto history—not history as it actually happened, but history as Rumsfeld wants us to see it. Morris makes plain that Rumsfeld’s “snowflakes”—whether intended to elucidate, rationalize, obfuscate, or control history—are contradicted by the facts. THE UNKNOWN KNOWN is an illumination of the mystery of Donald Rumsfeld, an unknown known.

In 2001, the tiny Pacific island of American Samoa suffered a world record 31-0 defeat at the hands of Australia, garnering headlines across the world as the worst football team on the planet. A decade after that humiliating night, they remain rooted to the bottom of FIFA’s World rankings, having scored only twice in seventeen years. They have lost every competitive game they have ever played. Against this backdrop of serial underachievement, the team face the daunting prospect of a qualification campaign for the upcoming 2014 World Cup in Brazil.

It would take a miracle-maker or a madman to turn the team’s fortunes around – and in maverick Dutch coach Thomas Rongen the islanders somehow find both. To complicate matters further the team’s best player has been posted 6000 miles away by the US military. Rongen has just one month to transform this ragtag of losers into a winning team – and perhaps learn a little about himself along the way. Directed by Mike Brett & Steve Jamison. In English & Samoan. Digital. 93 mins. 2014.

Join BAYCAT (Bayview Hunters Point Center for Arts and Technology) for the PREMIERE of their latest youth-produced Community Cinema film, Endangered: A Healthy Bayview for All. Endangered, created in partnership with the Metta Fund, asked four BAYCAT youth to tackle the question “What does a healthy Bayview look like?”. BAYCAT will also screen several youth-produced shorts that focus on the strengths, hopes, and challenges of the Bayview community. A panel, moderated by BAYCAT CEO, Villy Wang, of Bayview leaders, youth media producers, and health professionals will follow to discuss the films, and the past, present and future of Bayview.

Free admission thanks to The Metta Fund, who are sponsoring the event and healthy snacks!

The film will be introduced by: Rosalío Muñoz, co-chair of the 1970 Chicano Moratorium in Los Angeles; Dr. Félix Gutiérrez, professor, USC Annenberg School for Communication & Journalism; Ernesto B. Vigil, member of the Crusade for Justice from 1968–1981; Ricardo Lopez, advisor and Associate Producer of the film; Camille Taiara, journalist.

It was the era of the Brown Berets and Vietnam War protests, and cops had already warned L.A. Times journalist Rubén Salazar to “stop stirring up the Mexicans” with his coverage of police brutality, frame-ups and extra-judicial killings. Weeks later, Salazar met his early demise at the Silver Dollar Bar in East L.A., after a Sheriff’s deputy fired a 10-inch teargas projectile at his head. Rubén Salazar: Man in the Middle, a new documentary about this little-known Mexican-American protagonist, is as much about a generation’s rite-of-passage from assimilationism to Chicanismo as it is about Salazar’s journalistic legacy and suspicious death. Director Phillip Rodriguez uses stock film footage alongside old photographs and interviews with Salazar colleagues, family, friends and other key personalities to reconstruct the story of Rubén Salazar. (Camille T. Taiara)

Writer-Director Henry Jaglom gives us a bracingly funny, fearless and fast-paced human comedy set in a struggling Los Angeles television station threatened by economic downturn, possible in-house graft and massive job loss. Tanna Frederick plays Moxie, a children’s TV show actress who unexpectedly finds herself leading an extraordinary band of rebelling women demanding their rights as they anxiously face uncertain futures after their new boss (Michael Imperioli) and his second-in-command (Robert Hallak) arrive from New York on a devastating cost-cutting mission.

All of Moxie’s personal and professional assumptions and those of her long-time boyfriend (Corey Feldman) are turned upside-down as her mother, two aunts and stepfather join with dozens of her fellow female office workers to illuminate the struggles, challenges and joys of what is still, in some circles, referred to as ‘The Change Of Life.’

On March 5th, 2013, San Francisco’s skyline was transformed by an amazing sight: 25,000 LED lights that, for perhaps the first time save the 1989 earthquake, caused people to consider the Bay Bridge instead of her iconic sister.

How did this happen? Who was behind the eight-million-dollar installation? How in the world did they pull it off?

The story behind the making of THE BAY LIGHTS—a project whose very “impossibility made it possible”—answers these questions, revealing the drama and the daring of artist Leo Villareal and a small team of visionaries who battle seemingly impossible challenges to turn a dream of creating the world’s largest LED light sculpture into a glimmering reality.

Kevin Spacey, Sam Mendes and the Bridge Project Company go on the road in NOW:IN THE WINGS ON A WORLD STAGE. In over 200 performances, and across 3 continents, Kevin and the troupe reveal some of the most intimate moments behind the scenes of their staging of Shakespeare’s classic tragedy, “Richard III.” Their story and experiences weave around, and reflect on, excerpts from the play from their various locations, from Epidaurus to Doha, and provides a great opportunity for those who have never experienced Spacey on stage to witness his immersive and captivating interpretation of Richard III. NOW chronicles the first collaboration between Spacey and Mendes since their work on American Beauty. Directed by Jeremy Whelehan. 93 mins. 2014. Digital.

Spacey:“NOW is a close, backstage look at the total experience of being an actor and what it takes to form a company – from rehearsing every day and beginning to create a role with your director, crew and fellow actors to going on tour and spending a year together on the road in manydifferent cultures and countries.”

FIRST ANNUAL SAN FRANCISCO INTERGALACTIC FELINE FILM + VIDEO FESTIVAL FOR HUMANS

May 10, 2014

You can buy tickets purrrr program (for $12, at the bottom of the page), or get an ALL CAT-CESS PASS for $30 that gets you into EVERYTHING!

OPENING FESTIVITIES (Noon):

– Lil Bub IN PERSON!

– A WORLD PURRR-MIERE of a new Lil Bub video!

– A Brief History of Cat Videos!

– …And more!

CENTERPIECE SELECTIONS (4pm):

– Owlbert live!

– YOUR cat video submissions in our NEW DIRECTORS’ NEW FILMS section!

– ALL NEW WORLD PURRR-MIERE cat videos by ALEX ROSS PERRY (The Color Wheel, Listen Up Philip), ZACH CLARK (White Reindeer, Modern Love is Automatic), KENT OSBORNE (Adventure Time, School Ties) AND MORE!

– Skype Q&A with KENT OSBORNE (Spongebob Squarepants, Uncle Kent)!

– Scratch Tracks: Live Meowsic + Film with Mike Shoun and Maya Deren’s THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A CAT!

– Even more stuff!

CLOSING NIGHT (8pm):

– EVERYTHING IS TERRIBLE live in person, getting a trophy or two and showing a bunch of vidoes!

A survivor of the Rwandan Genocide struggles to forgive the man who killed her children. A victim’s daughter strikes up an unusual friendship with the ex-IRA bomber who killed her father. And two men—one Israeli, one Palestinian—form a bond after tragedies claim their daughters. Watch survivors share their stories of resilience and recovery in their own words.